Wednesday, June 04, 2008

No-Rando

As you may have noticed there have not been any brevet reports on this blog since the 200K I rode in April. I haven't been riding my Fujin since that brevet either. This has been puzzling me since I love that bike and I really like going out on the highway for long fast road rides. I've spent sometime pondering why, despite wanting to do these sorts of rides, I'm just not making it happen. The answer lies in a simple equation of social interaction. Last year during the rando season I had a GF and was spending lots of time with her. This meant that getting out on the Fujin for a long day on the bike was a nice break from being social and at the end of the ride I knew I could connect with her again and hang out. Being single this spring and working alone at home most of the time - social interactions are at a premium. If I don't make an effort I can easily not see another human being for 24hrs. Under these circumstances when I choose to ride a bike my first priority is to ride with a friend [none of whom want to do any long distance riding] and my second priority is to ride in town where there are other people. The idea of getting on my recumbent and spending 5-8hrs alone on the highway is quite unappealing at the moment.

Reflecting on this the whole situation made a lot of sense to me and frankly I don't feel particularly bad about it. I've managed to get lots of riding in with people I care about and helped motivate some of them to ride more. I'm having lots of fun. I'm just not doing one very specific kind of riding right now, but I know that things change and I'll be back on my bent cruising the highways in the not too distant future. I've also never appreciated how cycling feeds my emotion needs and how I can balance out my social life by choosing the different types of rides I focus on.

The other thing I have learned from this is that to reach my full rando potential clearly I need to be married...LMAO...just kidding!!....=-)

9 comments:

Hey Vik, good on you for just enjoying a different realm of the cycling world. I think the variety of it has kept me so interested for so long. Sometimes it's a fixie, sometimes a snow bike, sometimes a recument. Always great! Enjoy your rides whatever form they may be.

Do you have any local riding groups that train for distance? Here in the SF Bay Area, there's quite a few groups that have group training rides for centuries, double centuries and brevets on a regular basis - they are potential "social" training outlets.

Tanya - I've got a Dahon Speed D7 at my mother's in TO so I'm definitely up for a ride when I am in town next - however, there is zero chance I'll do a 200K brevet on that bike!!!...it doesn't exactly scream long distance speed or comfort...=-)